a communiqué issued by the prime minister's office on 7 may 1985 announced the designation of not only the seabed in the immediate vicinity of the faroes but also a vast area of the rockall plateau to the south west. the press release which accompanied the communiqué indicated that the legal basis of this designation was the assumption that "the faroe islands are part of the microcontinent" formed by the "faroes-rockall plateau", an "elevated plain with its summit in the faroe islands".