BRUSSELS—The European Commission is going ahead with a 2-year moratorium on three widely used pesticides that are potentially harmful to bees, although E.U. countries remain split on the issue. The decision follows reports published in January by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluding that the three so-called neonicotinoids—clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam—pose an "acute risk" to honey bees essential to farming and natural ecosystems.