The PEP-project aims to provide primary school pupils (focus: ages 9–10) with a basic understanding of the EU and to promote their interest in the political dimension of Europe through a specially developed simulation game. For this target group, hardly any EU simulation games have been developed, and there is still widespread scepticism among teachers about whether EU is a suitable topic for primary level at all. Therefore, the project aims firstly to develop an EU-themed simulation game suitable for the target group with three thematic variants (healthy nutrition, environmental protection, animal welfare) and secondly to conduct accompanying research on its implementation in 14 pilot classes (N = 350 students). The accompanying empirical research [(a) quantitative study with pre-, post- and follow-up design, (b) qualitative interview-study] is aimed at enabling solid findings on the effects and conditions of EU simulation games in primary schools as well as further, evidence-based development of these simulation games.In addition, in order to promote the implementation of the EU simulation games in primary schools, two teacher training sessions with 60 teachers will be conducted and evaluated. The training sessions will cover European integration and methods of teaching EU, with a particular focus on simulation games. The EU simulation games will be demonstrated and jointly assessed regarding their use in daily teaching.Finally, the optimised EU simulation games and the results of the accompanying empirical studies will be presented at a closing conference to a wide range of participants working in research, teaching and education policy as well as members of the public. At the end of the project, the three EU primary school simulation games will be made available on the project home page for teachers to download free of charge. In addition, complete sets with high-quality simulation game materials will be available to order at a small charge to cover expenses.