Osborne's Berlin trip overshadowed by £1.7 billion EU bill

This trip to Berlin should be a moment to savour for the Chancellor.

He's played a prominent role in persuading, and where necessary cattle-prodding, 40 odd countries and jurisdictions - many of them widely considered to be tax havens - to hand over financial information that should make it harder for the rich to hide their money offshore, out of sight of the taxman.

"People need to understand that tax evasion is not just illegal, it is immoral. You are robbing from your fellow citizens and you should be treated like a common thief." he told me.

"Because of this agreement today we're going to have the power to do that."

Now there are a few non-signers (Bahrain, Cook Islands and Panama) and this move will do little to reduce the tax gap (it's set to raise millions of pounds for the Treasury, last year HMRC failed to collect £34 billion).

That said, tax campaigners who have been extremely critical of the Chancellor in the past are being rather complimentary.

Richard Murphy of the Tax Justice Network described it as "a massive step forward in the fight against international tax evasion".

But it's interesting that on the same day as clamping down on tax evasion, the Chancellor is trying to find a way for Britain to avoid paying the EU another tax of sorts - the budget surcharge of £1.7 billion.

He's meeting fellow EU finance ministers in an attempt to persuade them the bill Britain has been handed (let's remember, in part due to the strength of our economic recovery) is unfair and that it should be recalculated.

On the face of it, resistance seems futile. Britain is legally obliged to pay up and in full, in time for December 1 or face fines.

But this morning the Chancellor denied this was political posturing ahead of a byelection and told me, "I am confident we can get this changed."

George Osborne is looking for a discount. Publicly he has allies. Italy and Holland appear equally outraged (although the Dutch have indicated that they will pay if they have to).

What's interesting is that the Chancellor appears to think that, in private, attitudes are softening too.

"It's precisely because we are taking a stand and saying this is not an acceptable way to behave that these discussions are taking place, and actually a week ago we were just expected to pay up. People now understand there's a proper conversation to be had," he told ITV News.

Quite which "people" he's referring too isn't clear and he won't say. The German and French positions appear fairly uncompromising.

Crudely put: the rules are the rules and Britain should pay up. There isn't any obvious room for manoeuvre, but the Chancellor had a meal with the German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schauble, last night so perhaps behind the scenes progress is being made.