Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson reacts while he speaks to chief nurse Nicola Burns-Muir at the children's ward of Milton Keynes University Hospital in Milton Keynes, England, Friday Oct. 25, 2019. European Union ambassadors agreed Friday that the bloc should grant Britain’s request for another extension to the Brexit deadline but have not yet figured out how long that delay should be. (Toby Melville/Pool via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson reacts while he speaks to chief nurse Nicola Burns-Muir at the children's ward of Milton Keynes University Hospital in Milton Keynes, England, Friday Oct. 25, 2019. European Union ambassadors agreed Friday that the bloc should grant Britain’s request for another extension to the Brexit deadline but have not yet figured out how long that delay should be. (Toby Melville/Pool via AP) Credit: TOBY MELVILLE

The European Union agreed Monday to delay Brexit until Jan. 31 next year – making the concession just three days before Britain was due to become the first country ever to leave the 28-nation bloc.

After a very short meeting of diplomats in Brussels, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Twitter that the EU’s 27 other countries will accept “the U.K.’s request for a Brexit flextension until 31 January, 2020.”

In London, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said it was Parliament’s fault, not Johnson’s, that another Brexit delay was needed.

Johnson secured “a great new deal, he set out a timetable that would have allowed the U.K. to leave on Oct. 31 with that deal – and Parliament blocked it,” said spokesman James Slack.

Johnson now plans to seek an early general election with the goal of getting a Parliament that would back his Brexit plan, but he may not have enough support. Lawmakers were meeting later Monday in the House of Commons on Johnson’s early election call.

Tusk added that the EU decision is expected to be formalized through a written procedure, meaning a special summit of EU leaders won’t likely be necessary to approve the move.

Two diplomats told the Associated Press the term “flextension” means that the U.K. will be able to leave even earlier than Jan. 31 if the Brexit divorce deal that the EU and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed upon earlier this month is ratified before Jan. 31. If that happens, the U.K. will leave the EU on the first day of the month following the ratification.