Quote Originally Posted by RandBlade View Post
The UK has no need to concede on this point. If the EU wanted the UK to concede on this point then there have been two negotiations and agreements signed, ratified and taken through Parliament between the UK and the EU in just over a year. If the EU having diplomatic status (given it is long-standing British opinion that it should not) was so important then the EU could have requested this formally during the EU-UK negotiations in 2019 or 2020.

The EU-UK agreement recently ratified was signed after Raab's letter.

It seems you are the one incapable of reading, as is the "European Commission spokesman", the UK is not a signatory to the Lisbon Treaty: A European Commission spokesman said: "The UK, as a signatory to the Lisbon Treaty, is well aware of the EU's status in external relations, and was cognisant and supportive of this status while it was a member of the EU.

The UK is not a signatory to the Lisbon Treaty. The UK has left the EU and we have spent five years negotiating future status.
I didn't follow this discussion, but stating that the UK should be aware of something in a treaty that they signed themselves seems a reasonable argument (even if the UK left, I think it's reasonable to say they should know the content of a treaty they were a signatory to until very recently).