The Chandra Deep Field South (CDF-S) was observed by XMM-Newton for about 3Ms in many periods over the past decade (2001-2002 and 2008-2009). The main goal of the survey was to obtain good quality X-ray spectroscopy of the active galactic nuclei responsible for the bulk of the X-ray background. We present the scientific highlights of the XMM-Newton survey and briefly discuss the perspectives of future observations to pursue XMM deep survey science with current and forthcoming X-ray facilities.