A flavour of the sort of thing being aimed at can be gathered from the list of those whom the European Commission describes on its own website as “personalities from the cultural scene from across Europe and beyond who have offered their services as ‘European Ambassadors for Intercultural Dialogue’”.

They include a Brazilian writer, a Slovak conductor, a Romanian film director, a Slovenian conceptual artist, a Catalan bass player, a Turkish piano player, and a Serbian Eurovision champion. While all are, doubtless, enormously worthy and talented, they are -- how best can I put this? -- not entirely representative of all that which might best be considered to be European.

The decision to make 2008 into a year of Intercultural Dialogue was taken by the European Parliament at the end of 2006. A budget of 10 million euros has been allocated to support special events associated with it.

One of the very first such events took place in Brussels earlier this month. It was the first of a series of six debates about the benefits of Intercultural dialogue to be held during the course of the year. The specific subject of this inaugural debate was ‘the impact of migration on the co-existence between different cultures in Europe’.

A keynote speaker at the debate was the EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini who reportedly told his audience: “Europe should not fear Muslim immigration.” He then added:

“With dialogue we can eradicate abuse of religion and culture… There is no ongoing clash. There is a perhaps a struggle between those who believe in freedom of expression but still understand the freedom of others, and those who interpret Islam wrongly and believe that only one religion should prevail.”

The debate took place on the same day that Canon Michael Ainsworth was beaten up outside his East London church by two Asian youths while another looked on shouting religious abuse.

Apparently, such attacks on members of that church have not been uncommon. During a service on Good Friday last year, worshippers at the church were showered with glass after a brick was thrown through one of its windows. A member of the church’s council has also reported having been physically threatened on its steps, whilst being told by one of his taunters: ‘This should not be a church, this should be a mosque.’

Clearly, for the undoubtedly very many genuinely moderate Muslim residents of London’s East End to prevail in their struggle there with their less than tolerant co-religionists, a far more robust form of persuasion is going to be needed than mere inter-cultural dialogue about the benefits of diversity.

Even before the seemingly most promising of Muslim audiences, the limitations of such dialogue were revealed at the debate at which Commissioner Frattini spoke. His remarks were criticised there by Bashy Qurashy, the Indian-born chairman of the European Network Against Racism, who has been a resident of Denmark this last quarter century. Mr Qurashy said:

“The commissioner referred to us as ‘foreigners’. We are not foreigners, we are Europeans.”

Mr Qurashy’s remarks reportedly received the endorsement of the debate’s moderator. This was the Pakistan-born Brussels-based journalist Shada Islam who said: "I am Pakistani and European."

Ms Islam is due to chair the last debate in the series of six debates marking the Year of Intercultural Dialogue. Due to take place in Brussels in October, the subject of this debate will be education.

Can’t wait.