An EU court upheld a partial ban on three insecticides known as neonicotinoids on Thursday. The General Court of the European Union said that the European Commission had been right to restrict their use in order to protect bees. The ruling covers three active substances - imidacloprid developed by Bayer CropScience, clothianidin developed by Takeda Chemical Industries and Bayer CropScience, as well as Syngenta’s thiamethoxam, Reuters said. However, the court did annul restrictions on the use of another pesticide BASF’s fipronil, because the Commission had not carried out “an adequate assessment” of the impact of its measures.