Campione d'Italia in the context of "Lake Lugano"

The European Union (EU) has expanded a number of times throughout its history by way of the accession of new member states to the Union. To join the EU, a state needs to fulfil economic and political conditions called the Copenhagen criteria (named after the Copenhagen summit in June 1993), which require a stable democratic government that respects the rule of law, and its corresponding freedoms and institutions. According to the Maastricht Treaty, each current member state and the European Parliament must agree to any enlargement. The process of enlargement is sometimes referred to as European integration. This term is also used to refer to the intensification of co-operation between EU member states as national governments allow for the gradual harmonisation of national laws.

The EU's predecessor, the European Economic Community, was founded with the Inner Six member states in 1958, when the Treaty of Rome came into force. Since then, the EU's membership has grown to twenty-seven, with the latest member state being Croatia, which joined in July 2013. The most recent territorial enlargement of the EU was the incorporation of Mayotte in 2014. Campione d'Italia joined the EU Customs Union in 2020. The most notable territorial reductions of the EU, and its predecessors, have been the exit of Algeria upon independence in 1962, the exit of Greenland in 1985, and the withdrawal of the United Kingdom in 2020.

Ticino (/tɪˈtʃiːnoʊ/ tih-CHEE-noh), sometimes Tessin (/tɛˈsiːn, tɛˈsæ̃/ tess-EEN), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts and its capital city is Bellinzona. It is also traditionally divided into the Sopraceneri and the Sottoceneri, respectively north and south of Monte Ceneri.

Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. It is one of the three large southern Alpine cantons, along with Valais and the Grisons. However, unlike all other cantons, it lies almost entirely south of the Alps and has no natural access to the Swiss Plateau. Through the main crest of the Gotthard Massif and adjacent mountain ranges, it borders the canton of Valais to the northwest, the canton of Uri to the north and the canton of Grisons to the northeast; the latter canton being also the only one to share some borders with Ticino at the level of the plains. The canton shares international borders with Italy as well, including a small Italian enclave.

The Swiss franc, or simply the franc, is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia, which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) issues banknotes and the federal mint Swissmint issues coins.

It is also designated through the currency signs Fr. (in German), fr. (in French, Italian, and Romansh), or CHF (in any other language), which stands for Confoederatio Helvetica Franc. These initials also serve as the ISO 4217 currency code, used by banks and financial institutions.

The province of Como (Italian: provincia di Como; Comasco: pruincia de Comm) is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. It borders the Swiss cantons of Ticino and Grigioni to the north, the Italian provinces of Sondrio and Lecco to the East, the province of Monza and Brianza to the south and the province of Varese to the West. The city of Como is its capital—other large towns, with more than 10,000 inhabitants, include Cantù, Erba, Mariano Comense and Olgiate Comasco. Campione d'Italia also belongs to the province and is enclaved in the Swiss canton of Ticino. The Lugano Prealps cover the territory of the province, and the most important body of water is the glacial Lake Como.

Büsingen am Hochrhein (German: [ˈbyːzɪŋən ʔam ˈhoːxʁaɪn], lit. 'Büsingen on the High Rhine'; Alemannic: Büesinge am Hochrhi, pronounced [ˈbyəzɪŋə am ˈhoːçri]), often known simply as Büsingen, is a German municipality (7.62 km [2.94 sq mi]) in the south of Baden-Württemberg with a population of about 1,548 inhabitants. It is an exclave of Germany and Baden-Württemberg, and an enclave of Switzerland, entirely surrounded by the Swiss cantons of Schaffhausen, Zürich, and Thurgau. It is separated from the rest of Germany by a narrow strip of land (at its narrowest, about 680 m [2,230 ft] wide) containing the Swiss village of Dörflingen. Büsingen is approximately 5 km (3.1 mi) from the town of Schaffhausen and 3 km (1.9 mi) from Dörflingen, the nearest village. Its status as an exclave dates to before the formation of the modern German and Swiss states, having previously been a detached part of Further Austria, the Kingdom of Württemberg and the Grand Duchy of Baden.

Politically, Büsingen is part of Germany, forming part of the district of Konstanz, but, economically, it forms part of the Swiss customs union, along with the principality of Liechtenstein and up until 2019, albeit unofficially, the Italian village of Campione d'Italia. As such, there have been no border controls between Switzerland and Büsingen since 4 October 1967.