Paris - Polling stations opened early Sunday in France for the 2009 European Union parliamentary elections.

A total of 3,115 candidates, from 42 parties and organizations, were standing for France's 72 seats in the European Parliament.

All polls point to a victory for President Nicolas Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), ahead of the opposition Socialist Party, Europe Ecologie and the centrist Modem of former presidential candidate Francois Bayrou.

The Socialists will want to draw at least 20 per cent of the vote. Anything less will be seen as an embarrassment and a bitter setback for party head Martine Aubry.

Bayrou needs to finish at least third in the polling to make his presidential ambitions for 2012 credible. Polls showed him falling behind Europe Ecologie in the final days of the campaign.

Analysts and mainstream politicians will also be keeping an eye on how two new far-left parties fare Sunday and on the voter turnout.

Turnout for the EU elections has been steadily declining in France, dropping from 60.7 per cent in 1979 to 43.1 per cent in 2004.

Because of the time differential, voters in France's overseas territories, such as Martinique and Guadeloupe, voted on Saturday.