Education Minister and Cabinet spokeswoman Isabel Celáa | Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images New Spanish government lifts financial controls on Catalonia Madrid announces plans to hold talks with Catalan government ‘before the summer.’

The new Spanish government announced Friday that it would return financial control of Catalonia to the regional government, in a move intended to ease tensions between the two sides.

"We have instructed banks to allow the Catalan government to make payments without subjecting them to the [central] Treasury's supervision," new Education Minister and Cabinet spokeswoman Isabel Celáa said during a press conference, which took place after the government team was officially sworn in.

Madrid's financial supervision over Catalonia will effectively end on Monday.

Catalonia has been under the control of the Spanish central government since October, when direct rule was imposed after separatist leaders declared independence in a referendum that Madrid and the courts said was illegal.

New Catalan leader Quim Torra had made repeated calls for dialogue with Madrid, and said that one of his government's main priorities would be to win back the region's political and financial autonomy.

Celáa said the move to lift financial supervision is meant to convey the new Cabinet's "trust" that Catalonia is now moving toward "political normalization."

She also expressed the "urgent need to establish dialogue with Catalonia," and said talks between Torra and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez would "probably" take place "before the summer."