EU doesn't recognise UK's claim to the Falklands

The Spanish head of an EU delegation to Argentina, Yañez Barnuevo MEP, has told the Argentinian government that as far as the EU Parliament is concerned the UK's sovereignty over the Falklands "is not accepted".

The Lisbon Treaty explicitly recognises the Falklands as a British Overseas Territory so Barnuevo's statement is strange given that failure of the EU Parliament to recognise the UK's sovereignty over the Falklands would be illegal under EU law.  It's not surprising in the slightest though - the Spaniards would see forcing the UK to cede sovereignty of the Falklands despite the 99.8% vote to retain its status as a UK overseas territory in a referendum this year as a precedent to do the same in Gibraltar where 98.48% rejected the principal of Spain sharing sovereignty of the territory in a referendum in 2002.