Not relevant to the case at hand but posting this for education.

Flights delayed by a non-eu carrier departing from outside EU and inbound for the EU can also be covered by the EC261 compensation if purchased on a code share and one of the legs is operated by the EU airline (it doesn't need to be the delayed one):

Case C367/20. Based on this, flights TO Europe are eligible for EC261 compensation if at least one of the connecting flights was operated by a Community air carrier. On 12 November 2020 the CJEU issued an order in this case asking for the clarification of some provisions of Regulation No 261/2004. The facts of the case concerned passenger travelling from outside of the EU to the EU via connecting flights (NYC-Amsterdam-Hamburg). The first connecting flight was operated by a non-Community air carrier under a code-share agreement, whilst the second one was operated by KLM (Community air carrier) https://recent-ecl.blogspot.com/2021...er-rights.html