The German MEP Jo Leinen, president of the constitutional parliamentary commission, states, about the agreement reached at the summit: "The essence of the Constitution has been preserved, and many items that Parliament had at heart have remained in the final text, such as the legal status and the abolition of the pillar-like construction of the Union". But as to the possibility of "a multi-speed" Europe (the opt-out rule achieved by Great Britain), Leinen says: "The view of the Europe of the future has been lost". According to the German MEP Elmar Brok, the author, with his Spanish colleague Barón Crespo, of the Assembly report in preparation for the summit, the agreement signed by the leaders of the 27 member states is a good thing: "In spite of everything, the essence of the constitutional project has been retained, for instance with the extension of a qualified majority, the foreign policy and the legal bond of the Charter of Fundamental Rights".
