41Furthermore, in the context of the fifth plea, the applicant claims infringement of the principle of proportionality in that the Commission, by rejecting the request for reimbursement of the expenditure already effected by the CIS, exceeded what was appropriate and necessary for attaining the objective pursued (Case 15/83 Denkavit Nederland [1984] ECR 2171, paragraph 25, and Case T-216/96 Conserve Italia v Commission [1999] ECR II-3139, paragraph 101). Thus, the Commission should have taken account of the circumstances of the case in order to avoid adopting a decision which penalises the CIS by requiring it to bear the responsibility for the delays for which the Regione Siciliana was responsible. In that regard, the applicant points out that, because of the contested decision, it has lost the right to all of the assistance provided for by the authorisation decision, which it does not dispute. What it considers to be disproportionate, however, is the refusal by the Commission to repay it the amount of the expenditure effected by the CIS in relation to the implementation of the operation, expenditure which has been found and certified to be true and justified by the Italian authorities and which was initially even accepted by the Commission.
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