If you have been following the case, Assange has been the subject of a very dedicated smear campaign to malign his public image, to discredit him, and make him less important as a public figure-- following the US and EU's failed attempts to get him out of the embassy for trial punishment.
Is the guy some innocent angel? No. Has he been systematically mistreated by the court system, and by the press? YES.
1) The EU doesn't have jack shit to do with that. If you're going to randomly pick international organization to blame, at least pick a funny one like ASEAN or UNASUR.
2) Yeah, there certainly was a smear campaign. But I'm not certain of Sweden's culpability there.
3) About Sweden "refusing both of those sensible attempts at compromise": what justice system want to establish the precedent that suspects can negotiate their terms?
1) WRONG. The EU (and thus its member nations, including sweden, and at the time, the UK) has a mutual extradition agreement with the US.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/LV/TXT/?uri=URISERV:jl0053If Assange left the embassy, and entered EU territory jurisdiction (which he would have the very instant he left the building), The US was just a phone call away from having him.
2) The same people with authority boners, on both sides of the pond, wanted him in custody, and punished. As Reelya points out, the swedish prosecution and law making process was actively trying to retroactively classify his conduct as a crime, just so they could punish him.
3) Given that there is extreme diplomatic issues at stake here, a little leniency given the extraordinary circumstances was more than warranted. But no. Of course not, their demands that he leave the embassy, and thus be subject to deportation was totally justified because of legal precedent fears. Totally. (rolls eyes.)