Brussels, 29/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - In an speech in Brussels on Tuesday, the British minister for European Affairs, Peter Hain, who is to represent the British Government within the Convention on the future of Europe, set out his vision of a reform he wants to be "radical" but "with its feet on the ground of the nation States, its head in the sky of a super-state". "The mandate given to the Convention must enable us to find a new way of managing European affairs" observed Mr. Hain, for whom, "despite their considerable success - a success that confounded Euroscpetics - EU institutions need a major change" as the institutions are too far removed from the people. He then went on so say that the outcome of the Irish referendum and the slogan that won "If you don't know, note no" were salutary calls for change.. while acknowledging that the Convention will have to examine questions like the election of the President of the Commission, extension of qualified majority voting, and increased powers for the European Parliament, Mr. Hain placed emphasis on the need to enable Member States to conserve their status as bedrock of the Union, as "it is quite frankly too big to hold accountable directly and exclusively through MEPs let alone an elected Commission President". Mr. Hain, thus, proposes that the Convention begin by drawing up a "declaration of principles" that could be the first article "of a fundamental law or a constitutional treaty", and clearly indicate that "the EU is primarily a union of member states", that the institutions exercise their powers in the respect of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, that the EU calls on legislative acts only when the other methods of c0o-operation do not allow to attain the goal sought and that the EU act when there are cross-border implications.