The Council of State, the highest legal authority in the Netherlands, has referred a case involving genetically-manipulated sweet corn to the European court, rather than make a ruling itself, news agency ANP reports on Wednesday.

Last year, the environment ministry gave the green light to several experiments to grow the corn on secret locations. But environmental group Greenpeace said the decision was against EU rules and that farmers had the right to know if their own produce was at risk of contamination from a test field.