The clock applet very cleverly displays appointment information, etc. from Evolution and I would expect that likewise Evolution would reflect the preferred date and time format that I have selected in the clock. 
Currently there seems to be no way to change the way that the date/time columns in the folder view are displayed at all (it does not respect the calendar prefs either). Integrating this would be a great way to add the functionality without actually adding any new "knobs to tweak" in Evolution itself (indeed, you could even remove the calendar preference and defer to the desktop setting).

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