1. Each Member State shall provide for one or more independent public authorities to be responsible for monitoring the application of this Directive, in order to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons in relation to processing and to facilitate the free flow of personal data within the Union ('supervisory authority').

2. Each supervisory authority shall contribute to the consistent application of this Directive throughout the Union. For that purpose, the supervisory authorities shall cooperate with each other and with the Commission in accordance with Chapter VII.

3. Member States may provide for a supervisory authority established under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 to be the supervisory authority referred to in this Directive and to assume responsibility for the tasks of the supervisory authority to be established under paragraph 1 of this Article.

4. Where more than one supervisory authority is established in a Member State, that Member State shall designate the supervisory authority which are to represent those authorities in the Board referred to in Article 51.