The EAGLE and EVE Phase A studies for instruments for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) originated from related top-level scientific questions, but employed different (yet complementary) methods to deliver the required observations. We re-examine the motivations for a multi-object spectrograph (MOS) on the E-ELT and present a unified set of requirements for a versatile instrument. Such a MOS would exploit the excellent spatial resolution in the near-infrared envisaged for EAGLE, combined with aspects of the spectral coverage and large multiplex of EVE. We briefly discuss the top-level systems which could satisfy these requirements in a single instrument at one of the Nasmyth foci of the E-ELT.
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